Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea is a country in Central Africa, with Malabo serving as its capital. From 1778 to 1968, the country was ruled by Spain as "Spanish Guinea", and it became the only African state to have Spanish as an official language. On 12 October 1968, independence was conceded to the colony, and Francisco Macias Nguema was elected president. In July 1970, he created a single-party state and was made President for Life in 1972. Macias Nguema severed the country's ties to the West and Spain in favor of closer relations with Eastern Bloc countries, despite his deeming of Marxism as "neo-colonialist". The Soviet Union supplied fish to the country in exchange for the Soviet Navy being able to use Luba as a naval base. Between 1968 and 1974, Macias Nguema began a reign of terror, killing 80,000 people in a country with a population of just 300,000 people. Macias Nguema committed genocide against the Bubi people, had thousands of opponents executed, closed down churches, and presided over the economy's collapse as skilled citizens and foreigners fled the country. On 25 December 1975, Macias Nguema had 150 alleged coup plotters executed. On 3 August 1979, Macias Nguema's own nephew Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo ousted his uncle from power in a bloody coup, and he had his uncle executed. After Mobil discovered oil in the country in 1995, the country experienced rapid economic development, but the earnings from the oil trade did not reach the population, instead making money for the foreigners. Teodoro Obiang used the oil wealth to enrich himself and his associates, amassing a personal wealth of $600 million. 20% of Equatorial Guinean children died before the age of 5, while half of the population did not have access to clean drinking water. In 2016, Equatorial Guinea had a population of 1,221,490 people.